Every Time It Rains
by agentjedi
Summary: Anakin remembers the first time he saw a rain storm.


**TITLE:** Every Time It Rains  
**AUTHOR:** agentj  
**RATING:** G  
**CHARACTERS:** Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi  
**STATUS:** complete  
**DATE WRITTEN:** February-March 2005, May 2006  
**TIMEFRAME:** _Clone Wars_ and flashback to post-_The Phantom Menace_  
**SUMMARY:** Anakin remembers the first time he saw a rain storm.  
**CONTENT WARNING:** none  
**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Inspired by Charlotte Martin's song of the same name.  
**WORD COUNT:** 1,093

* * *

The clone soldiers take refuge under the canopy of the transport crawler. I stand beside them at the edge of the opening, watching the landscape in utter fascination. The rolling grey clouds pour themselves out from the distance in silvery sheets. Thunder rolls from one edge of the valley to the other, as if the Force is reminding us where true power lies.

Water has pooled in the blast holes pockmarked across the valley. Every time rain pummels down into them, a burst of water spews forth. I slow my senses to watch the miracle over and over again. Around the centre of impact, water spikes erupt with perfect spheres of liquid over each point like a dazzling jeweled crown.

I smile as I remember the first time I experienced a rain storm.

I was a boy, almost ten. I had been living at the Jedi Temple perhaps three weeks when the sound of it woke me. My heart pounding, I sat straight up in my sleep couch, fearing that my former master had come in to the slave quarters from a long night of drinking, looking for me or my mom to yell at us for something he had done while he was drunk.

The padawan braid slapped me on the cheek as I sat up, and reminded me I was safe now, not a slave but on my way to becoming a Jedi. Slowing my breathing, I listened intently for the sound again.

A bright light flashed in the dark sky outside. As I turned to look, a thunderous clap crackled, and I swore I felt the Temple shake.

The return of the Sith!

My child mind knew it had to be. My new master, Obi-Wan had told me all about them. He was the first Jedi in a thousand years to come face-to-face with a Sith and defeat one, or so Master Windu said. The other Jedi seemed very impressed with that. Well, except for that gnarly old Master Yoda. He never seemed impressed with anybody.

Something else Master Windu said, though, was that there were always two of them.

I jumped to my feet and ran out of my room, across the soft carpeted floor into the sleeping quarters of my new master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I stopped and stared at him. He was just laying there on his stomach, completely asleep. His bare arm hung outside of the covers, dangling in mid-air. The light flashed again and a few seconds later, the sound of the blast echoed all around outside.

Shaking my master, I cried, "Master Obi-Wan, Sir! The Temple is under attack!"

"Wha—?" a bleary-eyed Obi-Wan lifted his head from the pillow and squinted at me.

I stared back at him. Couldn't he feel it? Couldn't he sense the energy in the air? "The Temple is under attack!" I repeated urgently.

Obi-Wan sat up sharply and looked out the transparisteel just as another flash of light lit up the whole room, followed by a crackling boom. "Ooh!" my master grumbled and frowned as he struggled with the sheets to cover himself up again. "It's a clapper storm, Anakin! Go back to sleep!" He settled down again on his side.

I turned and stared out at the view. "Clapper storm...," I whispered reverently as I stepped toward the transparisteel. I had heard about them from the space pilots back on Tatooine, about places where it would rain for days and days on end. I watched in fascination at the sheets of rain, coming down so hard that it appeared as if ribbons of silver danced and twinkled before me. It reminded me of Naboo, being inside of one of those waterfalls around the capital.

I must have stood there mouth gaping for some time, because Obi-Wan poked his head out of his covers and grumpily called, "Padawan!"

I jumped. His tone of voice was like Watto's when the old bird discovered me daydreaming, leaving work undone. I looked over my shoulder into his blue-green eyes that glittered in the ambient light. He sighed, and in a much softer voice said, "Anakin, we have a long day tomorrow. Please get some sleep."

I nodded and walked slowly into the common room. Light bloomed, silently cascading around me, and I stopped to stare at the storm outside again. The sound of thunder rolled around the apartment from a distance as the storm moved away.

I listened intently at the last echoes of sound to dissipate, and suddenly I remembered Master Qui-Gon's lesson about the Force. This, I had begun to understand, was the sound of the Force that Master Qui-Gon told me about. It was the one thing he was able to teach me before his own passing into the Force, and I will never forget it.

I never made it back to my sleeping quarters. Instead, I sat down in the middle of the dark room and watched as lights danced across the sky, and listened to the sound of rain and thunder creating music. I felt the awesome power of the storm fill my chest. It thrilled me to know that as a Jedi, I would learn to harness this power and make it do my bidding. Never again would I wake up afraid of what others might do to me. I would make things happen. Me. I would wield the lightning. My voice would be the clap of thunder, and those who heard it would obey.

Stepping off the transport platform, I walk out into the rain. I raise my face to the sky and feel the bite of the cool water upon my skin. My arms stretch out in benediction to the power of the Force I feel inside of me. The clone commander calls out, but I ignore him. The energy of the storm swirls around me, and I lose myself in it, becoming one with it. Its power is at my command and mine alone.

I hear the mortar soaring through the air before the commander can call out my name. There is no fear. There is only peace. With lightening-fast reflexes, I jump from my position, pulling out my sabre as I somersault. There is an explosion behind me where I once stood. The side transport crawler is scorched from the heat of the blast, and several clone troopers didn't make it...including the commander.

Igniting my blade, I shout through the deluge of rain and thundering mortar blasts. Instantly, the troopers respond, and the battle is on again.

It's good to be alive.


End file.
